Tom Lauria started building kit models when he was seven years old and was hopelessly hooked. In his early twenties, he met William Quincy, a master model builder at Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, who made a lasting impact on the way Tom thinks about models and building them. Tom joined the Nautical Research Guild and eagerly devoured all the information contained in their quarterly journals. Numerous trips to the maritime museums in the northeast furthered his modeling education. He started restoring half hulls for the Larchmont Yacht Club in New York and in 1987 moved to Nantucket where model building became a fulltime job.

Tom builds models following standards published in 1980 Mystic Seaport publication, Ship Model Classification Guidelines. These recommendations relate to scale fidelity, materials, methods, research, and historical accuracy.

Look carefully at Tom’s model of the fishing schooner, L.A. Dunton, and you will see weathering, rust, and wear patterns on the deck and on the windlass used to haul mooring lines. The intention to detail goes beyond portraying a working vessel accurately; you get a sense of how the ship was used and what life aboard may have been like.

Tom is an active member of the USS Constitution Model Shipwright Guild. The Guild's range of members has proven to be an inexhaustible resource for anything nautical or model related. Dedicated to passing on his knowledge, Tom produces detailed Youtube videos about ship model building, which bring in rewarding feedback from modelers around the world. In 2020, Mass Cultural Council Lauria received a Finalist in the Traditional Arts award.